I finished the game in about 15 hours on hard difficulty. It was pretty damn challenging. I can imagine the 1999 mode is absolutely brutal.

See, I played on normal to absorb the story as I've been scorned before by starting on hard mode and hating it, but it's a pretty good progression and I bet you're going to find it a bit easier than me ...being rather stoned at the time of my first proper death in 1999 mode might not have helped the cause.

And Jim, it's pretty engrossing, although I have found a bit of a lack of motivation to continue 1999 mode now that I've died. The save point wasn't too far back, but I'm scared it'll start me again...

So I just spent the last week or so playing through Bioshock, Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite. I havent been that engrossed in a series of games since Mass Effect. Theyre all amazing, and although Infinite isnt set in the Rapture universe it still delivers. And it looks fucking amazing.